DEMOCRATIC DIVIDENDS FOR KWARA CIVIL SERVANTS SINCE 2003 A retrospective look at the Kwara State Civil Service before 2003 shows that the service as it were, suffered from so many defects including low morale as a result of battered service on account of none payment of salary, and no promotion at all. Also, service infrastructure like service accommodation and equipments were not only dilapidated, comatose, inconsequential and out of tune, with the reality of modern day civil service but reflected a sign of hopelessness on the service. The service was not attractive and those therein were disillusioned even as nobody wanted to come into the service. Of course, there was no new engagement/recruitment. During the period under review, the issue of Civil servant training and retraining i.e. Human Capital Development was never an agenda. However, with the coming of DR ABUBAKAR BUKOLA SARAKI as the Executive Governor of the State in 2003, there were noticeable changes on the condition of service for workers in the State. For instance, the issue of stagnation on a grade level and embargo on promotion were lifted, resulting in free flow of promotion. Staff were appropriately graded with correct grades and steps and those that were inappropriately disengaged from service were reabsorbed. The afore mentioned were the first phase of turn -around in the Kwara State Civil Service. That administration further enhanced the status of Civil Servants by’ ensuring that there was no supercision in the service thus winning the hearts of the majority of Civil Servants including the teachers. Another milestone in the development and repositioning of the Civil Service was the State service retreat that was organized by BUKOLA administration for Stakeholders in the Service. The retreat, according to the Head of’ Service, Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed, was informed by an indept study of the entire service in 2007 on the structure, composition and compartmentalization of the service (i.e. directorate settings), in order to reposition the service for effective delivery and quality governance. The retreat led to seven point service reform agenda with the sole objective of efficiency and effectiveness. Chiefly among the seven point agenda is institutional restructuring as approved by the then State Executive Council (State EXCO) to be implemented by the Office of the Head of Service (OHOS); aggressive training and retraining programmes for workers; ICT training and retraining for all trainable Civil Servant in the State; appropriate motivation and remuneration across the entire service; Service, infrastructural strengthening and development for an improved working environment; stress free disengagement and procedures to ensure smooth transition from active service life to post-working life and appropriate budgeting for service development and strengthening. All these seven themes are broken into activities which are short, medium or long term. All of which are within the framework of Civil Service reform and reconstruction arising from the outcome of the retreat and directive of the State EXCO under the leadership of the immediate past Chief Executive of the State, DR ABUBAKAR BUKOLA SARAKI. The Head of Service, Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed was mandated to implement along with the Service Reform Committee all the recommendations of the retreat programme. Since that time, the Kwara Sate Civil Service has not remained the same again. A classical example of where the service has taken a giant stride and continue to grow, is in the area of Service Infrastructural Development and Human Capital Development including ICT Deployment and training across all tiers. A cursory look at the renovation of Phase I Secretariat housing about 5 MDAs is enough to convince us of the over 300% transformation of pre-2003 dilapidated edifice into a state of the art structure. The Governor’s office Complex and indeed, the Phase III Secretariat Complex housing Ministry of Sports, Environment and Solid Minerals is another classical example of translating service reforms into physical reality. Indeed, by 2003 and of course, up to 2007, less than 10% of officers on grade level 14 and above have appropriate furniture in their various offices let alone office equipment that were farther away from them than their furniture. All these stories changed with the gradual stepwise purchase of furniture and office equipment all these categories of offices are part of service enhancement scheme of the Civil Service Reforms in Kwara State. Another startling aspect of the reform is the unprecedented lCT Training to which all trainable officers on level 8 and above were exposed in the service accompanied with distribution of laptops to atleast one in five of these officers resulting in the procurement and distribution of about 2000 laptops and 1,500 desktops across officers and offices. All these interventions were actually aimed at sharpening the rough-edges of training and service requirements of all Civil Servants. This is in addition to providing solid based for entrenching a service populated by persons with capacity to meet the modern requirement of service delivery. It is important to stress that compared with the pre-reform period when ICT exposure was almost nil in the service, not less than 20% of the service and indeed 100% since 2010 recruitment are lCT compliant. Such service repositioning has obviously reduced response time and has enhanced service delivery. The body language of the service has also moved from the dark ages of non ICT compliance to service that is lCT driven. From a service without clear vision to that with an end in mind. From a service that is not result-oriented to that guided by key performance indicators. Above all, concerned about the problems encountered during the transition period by potential retirees. That is to say that the touch-light of the reform was also beamed on the Pension Sector in which as at today, all pensioner/retirees with their completed papers had never missed one month pension since 2007. Furthermore, apart from all arrears of gratuities that were settled from 1976 – 2007, Solid arrangement were made to pay gratuities as funds become available on first come, first serve. With that arrangement, it is easiest to project gratuity payment in the State. Under motivation and remuneration and in line with national salary adjustments and within the available resources to the State Government, the minimum wage also rose from N4,300.00 in 2004 to the current N18,100.00 for the main service while specialized salary structures such as CONMESS and CONHESS were also implemented as per the capacity of the State. Remuneration of lecturers in the State tertiary institutions were also upgraded, of course, along with their specific salary structures given the capacity of the State Government. In essence, in the last eleven and half years, the Kwara State Civil Service has been transposed and transformed along all these within the seven thematic areas of the Civil Service Reforms earlier mentioned in a manner which can only be described as mercurial and mesmerized. It therefore goes without saying that for that monumental development in the area of service delivery and development as enumerated above, there should be clear mission and vision with clear elements to drive such mission and vision even with limited resources to drive such tall vision. The drivers of this change and the main change agent of these phenomenal service development are no other person than the immediate past Executive Governor of the State, a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, DR ABUBAKAR BUKOLA SARAKI, the present Executive Governor of the State of Harmony, His Excellency, Alhaji (Dr.) AbdulFatah Ahmed with the incumbent Head of Service, Alhaji Dabarako N. A Mohammed as the handler of the service portion of this development strategy. This ICON of Service Development, Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed succeeded on placing Kwara State on National service map by successfully hosting the 38th National Council on Establishments with the active financial and moral support of His Excellency, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed in January, 2014 for the first term since the creation of Kwara State. This number one Civil Servant of the State is clearly blessed with the correct staff mix requirement of all MDAs in terms of cadre, composition and department compartmentalization. It was also part of his strategic ways of service restructuring that he obtained an approval from the State EXCO as requested for the restructuring and reconfiguration of Ministry of Information to be renamed Ministry of Information and Communications; ministry of Environment to be renamed Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The erstwhile State Planning Commission to be returned to its former status of Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. On the directive of the State Executive Council, he personally carried the service reformed messages to all MDAs under the sensitization and awareness sub-theme of the reform agenda. He had a correlates of development and indeed service development with clear understanding of all the linkages between objectives and key performance as an astute administrator of inestimable value. He has no doubt impacted on the service, a sector through which he came in. The totality of such contribution may only be evaluated in years to come. It is therefore no wonder that a perilous organization such as Institute of Corporate Administration has identified this star and administrative wizard for the award of “ICON of Vision and Development” which was presented to him by the Institute on 13th December, 2014. Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed who clearly represents positive thinking, all round advancement and service progress clearly squares into every encomium it is therefore noteworthy to say that Kwara Sate Civil Servants are undoubtedly beneficiaries of the democratic dividends from 2003 till date. Usman Abdullateef is the Chief Press Secretary to the Head of Service.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 09:24:51 +0000
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